Digital advertising and marketing: only the best ideas worldwide, since 2003

This site is soooo cool but so hard to love. It’s for the X Games. The graphics and use of video and design are so lovely but the navigation is absolutely the worst. I really like what they do with the design when it expands and reveals such cool graphics but I really got annoyed while trying to nav between the sections at the upper level. Maybe my eyes are bad… what do you all think? Have a look.

MTV in Australia (via Lowe Hunt Sydney) just launched the campaign for Snoop to become an Australian citizen. Considering the Australian government recently banned him from entering the country MTV and Lowe Hunt put together this campaign to get him here full-time. The filming was done prior to his “ban”. The webisodes will be released every Wednesday. The first four are up now.
It’s a full-on mocumentary of his claim to become an Aussie and live down under – learning all about the culture Australia has to offer.

AXE (LYNX) has launched in Japan with all the pop and candy you could imagine. The website is a funny mash of video, branded entertainment and the good old AXE women we are all so used to by now. The lead women on the site are all of western appearance talking in Japanese which is a bit odd.
Sections include the AXE NEWS, The AXERCISE and The Lesson (which explains the the Japanese what the AXE EFFECT is all about). I hate the background music but overall the site is loads of fun – even if I can’t understand any of it.

Simpsons: the movie will hit theatres around the world, starting from July 27th 2007. The marketing machine around the movie is getting started and already brought some interesting stuff. Illegal Advertising points at the video below, in which the Statue of Liberty was ‘vandalized’ with a donut. Next up was AdAge pointing at the makeover of a dozen Canadian and US 7-Eleven supermarkets into Springfields Kwik-E-Mart. Ending up on the movie’s website, you can make your own Simpsons avatar, which is quite fun.

Nicole Kidman is using her DS for brain-training. Nice, but years ago Nintendo thought of a whole different kind of use for the console: sex education! Probably never made it any further than this (rare) demo, but that doesn’t make it less interesting. Watch and learn

Silver Lion winning Coca-Cola commercial ‘Happiness Factory’ (from W+K Amsterdam) now opens it’s doors and gives you a ‘behind the magical scenes’ in this e-documentary. Some of the voices are done by actual Coca-Cola employees

Not sure how long this site has been up but it is absolutely hilarious! I guess when you get to the stage that SPAM is at with its brand you just have to give in and poke some fun at yourself. They even have a SPAMmobile that is venturing around the USA delivering all the goodness of SPAM to the masses. It’s a pretty cool design and the videos have been really well scripted.
In the SPAMFESSIONALS section there are “supposedly” user coments such as “I thought the SPAMMOBILE had wings. Because it’s an angel of deliciousness!”
Too funny… I loved it. Check it out.

Cannes has begun for this year. So what are your choices for the gold Cyber’s?
My guess is that this year a Cyber choice will be the Best of Show. Given the surge within our industry towards interactive and digital the judges (and the whole event itself) can’t be seen as “old school”. Well it’s just my opinion…

What do you all think about Apple’s new site? They’ve moved away from the excessively copied shiny plastic lolly aesthetic which was cool (once upon a time). The graduated reflective buttons that they used are gone and it’s back to the basics of usability. NICE!! I am so glad to see a “design leader” revert to the simplicity of good function, fast download speeds and limited animations whilst still displaying a lovely design interface. I like it. Do you?

Looks like MTV are cashing in on the recent government rejection of Snoop into Australia. It seems as though he is going for full Australian citizinship. This looks like the teaser so can’t wait for the full campaign… then again – imagine Snoop as an Australian!!